In 2022, I looked at the carbon footprint of a ski holiday, based on some research by French ski resorts. The original research attempted to detail the carbon cost of a day’s skiing, and the differences your choices can make to the final figure.

I’ve now updated these figures, to make it more specific to the UK market and to include the latest data from Protect Our Winters. The graph of this data is shown below.

carbon footprint ski holiday

There are a couple of differences from the original data, from a study by the French ski areas of La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand and Tignes (shown below):

  1. Carbon emissions of travel choices are based on research from Protect Our Winters
  2. I have removed the carbon cost of food: everyone has to eat whether on holiday or not. You could argue that on a ski holiday you eat more than you would at home, but the difference is marginal.
  3. I have removed the carbon cost of accommodation: everyone ‘lives’ somewhere, whether on holiday or not. You could possibly argue that on a ski holiday, it’s probably colder than at home, and therefore heating costs are higher. However, many modern properties in ski resorts have significantly higher environmental standards than the UK’s homes.
  4. I have included a separate calculation for travelling by electric car, rather than ICE vehicle. Evidently it will depend how and where you charge your EV, but the French electric mix is already low carbon (thanks to their nuclear power) and most motorway superchargers (such as Ionity or Tesla) are powered with 100% renewable electricity. Therefore the carbon cost of travelling by EV is negligible.

Flying is the most carbon intensive way to travel

The key point to take on board is that you can significantly reduce the carbon cost of your ski holiday by choosing to travel by train or in an EV instead of flying.

Travel by train to reduce your emissions 

For a skier travelling from the UK, the different between flying and taking the train is stark.

According to research by POW, a ski holiday taking a plane and then a taxi to resort generates over 250kgCO2 in each direction, but taking the train and then a bus to resort reduces that figure to just 118kgCO2 – less than half of the emissions generated by flying to your ski holiday.

#SkiFlightFree

If you’re reading this, it’s unlikely you are unaware of the need to reduce global emissions, so why not see if you can travel by train (SNO Holidays is a good resource for this) on your next ski trip.

You can read full details of the survey (in French) here.  You can view the infographic for the original study here:

emissions of a ski holiday